HaileyWrites

It has been a while since my last post. I've had so much to blog about but it has been hard translating my thoughts into coherent words. I have some posts in my drafts but I can't seem to complete them yet.  One of the reasons why it takes time to complete a post is because... I just realized that I want to be a perfectionist when it comes to my blog. The desire for perfection actually ends up getting in the way because I often feel like my posts aren't good enough to be posted. The desire for perfection in terms of my blog keeps me stuck and unproductive. I also think I have placed a lot of pressure on myself when it comes to my blog. When I gave my life to Christ, I made the decision to use my blog as a platform to share the gospel and simply talk about my walk with Him. That decision hasn't been the easiest because I feel like it contributed to the pressure I put on myself (stay with me now). It was easier for me to blog about whatever topic I decided on but once I m...

I seem to gravitate towards writing about obedience and its because when I read the Bible, obedience stands out the most to me. Also, disobedience seems to be the downfall of most biblical figures and of course, disobedience leads to sin. Obedience is about submitting to God's commandments, His laws and His will.  It makes sense why obedience is difficult because it requires us to lay down our own wills for God's will. Walking with Christ requires the willingness and ability to lay down your own will for His because His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). Disobedience was the reason for the fall of mankind. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because it would lead to death (Genesis 2:16-17). Scripture provides a lot of instances that show disobedience and its consequences. This post is dedicated to studying King Saul and how his disobedience led him to being rejected as King by the Lord. I ...

Jonah 4 vs 1 - 2 (NKJV): 1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2 So he prayed to the Lord, and said, "Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm" I am sure we all know the story of Jonah. If you don't, here is the background. The Lord sent Jonah(a prophet) to deliver a message to Nineveh to say that the Lord had a cry against the city because of their wickedness. Jonah fled from the Lord because he didn't want to deliver the message so he got on a ship. When Jonah was on the ship, the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea. The people on the ship were afraid. Long story short, they threw Jonah out of the ship because he was the reason God caused the storm. When Jonah was thrown into the sea, he was swallowed by a great fish for 3 days until the Lord spoke...

When I was younger, I had a book with all the Bible stories. It was a children's storybook so of course, it didn't go into depth but it still gave the overall message. I remember thinking, "okay, God talked to Noah and he listened". It looked like an easy enough task to me at that age but now my view has changed. Genesis 6:8 (NKJV): But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis chapter 6 tells us about the state of mankind's heart in those days. The fear of the Lord was not present and people were just living life in a way that grieved God to the point where God regretted making mankind. The earth was corrupt, filled with violence and the intents of the thoughts of mankind's heart was evil continually. It is good to remember that God sees our hearts and He knows our hearts. Besides the physical wickedness perpetuated by man on a daily basis, the states of their heart were just continuous evil. God was grieved in his heart and he was regretful. These ar...

When we study the great figures of the Bible, one thing stands out. They all had an intimate relationship with God. In the previous post, I mentioned that Abraham was probably able to discern the presence of God in the three men because he knew God and he knew how it felt to be in His presence. The problem with our generation is that we believe going to church on Sundays is enough. We forget that Jesus is the Bread of life, in the same way we eat food every day to satisfy our flesh, we need the bread of life (Jesus and the Word of God) to nourish our spirit. Prayer and reading the Word are some of the ways to cultivate a deep relationship with God. Another problem is that we distance ourselves from God by only knowing him as God and not regarding him as our Father. That change in mindset really makes the difference. Knowing God as our Father means that we desire to talk to him through prayer because we know the importance of daily communication. We desire to bring honor to his name by ...

Genesis 22 vs 1 - 2 (NKJV): 1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham , and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I tell you." One of the many things I struggled with in the past was selective reading. I would read the Bible and misunderstand so much, leading me to have a lot of confusion when it came to God. The day I started praying before going into the Word was such a gamechanger and I recently understood why.  The Bible was written by people that were led by the Holy Spirit so definitely, if we read it without the help of the Holy Spirit, confusion is bound to arise. Without the wisdom, knowledge and understanding that we can only receive from the Holy Spirit, we are reading from the flesh. That right there is the problem, I was reading words wri...

Initially, this blog post was going to be focused on Abrahams obedience. However, I did not know how to go about the blog though the vision was clear. Then it dawned on me, I cannot talk about Abraham's obedience without touching on his faith. His faith is the one that fueled his obedience. His faith made it easier to obey God because he trusted God. Genesis 12 vs 1 - 3 (NKJV): 1 The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you" These three verses show God's promises to Abram (before his name was changed to Abraham). God did not just tell Abram to leave his country, but He gave Abram promises. We see here that God knows his people....